Long Island alligators: Where are they coming from?

Residents may be trying to domesticate the wild animals

Long Island alligators have been found on several occasions this week, prompting officials to be concerned over where the wild reptiles are coming from. Three alligators were found this week to add to the one found on a lawn in Mastic Beach on Friday.

A 30-inch alligator was found Oct. 1 on the Great Rock Golf Club in Riverhead, and was taken to the Long Island aquarium to be cared for, according to Web Pro News. Long Island alligators have turned up other places, including a 2-3 foot alligator that was found Oct. 2 in a Pathmark parking lot and a 3-4 foot alligator found in the same lot the next day.

Both Long Island alligators we captured, one by police and the other a resident, and given to Nassau County Emergency Services Unit, according to the Huffington Post. Both will be sent to Florida to live in a reptile sanctuary.

Officials are concerned that residents are trying to domesticate these wild animals by making them pets, then setting them free into the community.

“It’s a wild animal, it cannot be domesticated,” animal control-officer Jessica Eibs-Stankaitis said of the Long Island alligators issue. “It’s an animal of opportunity when it needs to eat.”